


the old man & the apocalypse

by deerie



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Books, Gen, Sibling Bonding, Sibling Love, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2020-01-12 04:02:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18438641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deerie/pseuds/deerie
Summary: "Talk about having nothing but a skeleton left, man.” // Wherein Five can't talk about his feelings outright, so he uses a book instead.





	the old man & the apocalypse

“Did you ever read _The Old Man and the Sea_?” Five asks him inexplicably one day.

Ben shakes his head. “Kinda died before I could start that one,” he says.

Five rears back a little bit at the reminder that Ben _died_ and then shakes his head. “Not the point,” he says fiercely. “It’s about this old man--”

“Let me guess,” Ben says. “And the sea?”

“I would have expected that from Klaus, but not you, Ben.”

Ben shrugs. “I spent a significant chunk of time with Klaus as the only person who could see me.”

“Irrelevant. It’s about this old man who goes through a period of bad luck--”

“Like you did, right?” Ben interrupts, flashing a smile when Five glares at him.

“Will you let me finish?” Five asks, teeth gritted.

“If I have to,” Ben says.

“Thank you. Anyway, he’s this fisherman who hasn’t caught a fish in a really long time. His apprentice is made to work with other people because he’s considered so unlucky. So the old man goes out farther than he ever has and he hooks the biggest fish he’s ever caught and they engage in an epic struggle, which eventually culminates in the old man catching the fish. But he’s gone out so far to catch the fish, that by the time he gets back to shore, all that’s left is its skeleton.”

“Wait, wait, why just the skeleton?”

“Because sharks,” Five says firmly.

“Okay, sharks. That seems like a pretty big plot point.”

“I guess,” Five says, waving his hand in the air. “So his apprentice sees the boat with the fish skeleton lashed to it and he immediately goes to find the old man. He cries when he finds the old man asleep in his bed, because he was sure that something bad had happened to him.”

“Like sharks?” Ben asks.

“Yes, like sharks,” Five agrees waspishly. “He watches the old man until he wakes up and then they agree to be fishing partners again.”

“Does the old man catch another fish?”

Five shrugs. “That’s not really the point.”

“Are you done over-identifying with a book about a fish?”

“I’m not over-identifying--” Five stops. He takes a breath. “Elaborate.”

“You spent a long time in the apocalypse,” Ben says. “Like, a long time. Years and years. You’re the old man. You kept trying to get back to our time, but you had a string of bad luck.”

“Are you comparing the family to a fish?” Five ponders this for a moment. “I like it, go on.”

“Right, so you finally make it back and stop the apocalypse, except then you have to send all of us back in time so that we’re all thirteen again and under Sir Reginald Dickgreeves’ thumb again. Talk about having nothing but a skeleton left, man.”

Five tilts his head in agreement. “But,” he starts, hesitantly, “I have you all again, like the old man gets his apprentice back in the end.”

Ben grins and then reaches over and ruffles Five’s hair with the heel of his hand, which is _not_ something Ben would have done at thirteen the first time around, but _is_ something that Five apparently decides to let go, on account of the fact that Ben had been dead for fourteen years. Will be. Would have been?

Time travel is tricky. Ben hopes they can avoid his death this time around.

“You big sap,” Ben says in his cracking thirteen year-old voice. He hates it in equal measure to just being _glad_ that everyone can hear him again. “We love you too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Out of all the ridiculous, implausible situations that I've ever written about (and I have written about many), I really didn't think I'd include _The Old and the Sea_ in any fic ever. I've gotta go have a lie down now, I think. 
> 
> In my head and this extended metaphor, Hazel and Cha-Cha are the sharks, I think. And the almost-Apocalypse too, I guess. It's getting away from me, maybe.
> 
> Find me on Twitter at [@afuturetime](http://www.twitter.com/afuturetime).


End file.
